Last week Ohio Valley Athletics had the privilege of visiting the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. We did this as part of a group with the OVAC and their Varsity Board. The Varsity Board is made up by student athletes from the OVAC’s member schools. The hope is to have at least one member from each of the 51-member schools.
The reason for this tour was not only to showcase the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was also to teach the Varsity Board about the history of pro football and its roots to the Ohio Valley. The main reason for this trip however was to continue the work the Varsity Board has been doing all year studying what Title IX is and what it does for sports. The Pro Football Hall of Fame staff put on a wonderful presentation on the role of women in the NFL.
Most people think about some famous names when it comes to the NFL such as Halas, Hunt, Ford, and Rooney. However, as these families dealt with the passing of these legends there is a group of women known as the Fab Four that has took the reins of their family businesses. Virginia Halas McCaskey of the Chicago Bears, Norma Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs, Martha Ford of the Detroit Lions and Patricia Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers. These women now in their 80s and 90s carry on the passion of football and lead their teams and continue to help grow the game.
The presentation made by the HOF also included numerous examples of front office females that help run the NFL and their respective teams that make up the league. Renie Anderson is one such example. She is the Executive Vice President of NFL Sponsorships.
Also mentioned were sideline reporters and game announcers. One such woman is Michele Tafoya, who has been an NFL sideline reporter since 1994.
Women are even coaching in the NFL now. The presentation covered all women that are currently coaching, but specifically it mentioned Jen Welter. She became the first woman coach in the NFL when she was hired by the Arizona Cardinals as an Inside Linebackers Coach.
Women’s roles even include officiating games. Shannon Eastin was the first female official in the NFL.
They even told the story of Sam Gordon who played RB as a girl in a boy’s tackle league and dominated. Her highlight video went viral in 2012 with over 5 million views in 2 days. Sam continued using her spotlight to grow the game and start an all girl’s tackle league. She made appearances on various talk shows and even made the NFL’s 100th Season: commercial in 2019.
There is no shortage of what women have accomplished in the NFL with much more to come. All this was explained to the OVAC’s Varsity Board. This showed not just the young ladies in the group, but the young men as well what women have done and will continue to do.
The NFL is just one place where women impacted sports and that was the message the OVAC wanted to get out to their Varsity Board.
This was just one more example of this year’s theme for the Varsity Board, on what is the impact of Title IX on sports.
Dawson Jones who plays strong safety for Edison is one member of the Varsity Board. When asked what he thought of the content he stated “This was a great experience to learn about females in football”.
Dan Carter of Buckeye Local high School is another member of the Varsity Board. He echoed the thoughts of others on the Board. “We had a lot of good speakers this year. We learned a lot about the role of women in sports and other places around” Carter said.
Kaylee Hagan, Chloe McCulley, and Kinley Hughes all from Beallsville had a particularly interesting take on the role of women in sports for good reason. All three girls played basketball for Beallsville this past year. The Beallsville basketball teams had such low numbers that they had a combined the boy and girls’ team. They competed against other boys’ teams throughout the season.
The girls mention “It was really difficult to get used to at first, but it just took us time to get used to it”. They added when asked how other teams acted when they had to play against a combined team: “Some teams were very nice about it, and other teams not so much, but mostly we had a lot of support”.
This did not stop these girls from playing and playing well. Hagan was actually the team leader in points scored in several games this year. The team even won several games finishing with an 8-15 record.
When asked specifically what they thought of the Varsity Board this year and the trip to the HOF they were emphatically stated “It was pretty cool!”
Discussion about this post